I'll take it.

Game seven.

Stanley Cup finals.

NBC.

I'll take it.

If I had one little gripe, it's that now that NBC has taken over the broadcasts of the games, OLN has gone back to a 24-7 format of fishing and bullriding. When they were broadcasting the games, they led in to them with terrific hockey specials, promos, and Stanley Cup flashback videos unavailable elsewhere. It was great, and I'm sure they could do better ratingswise with some hockey programming before and after the games. Maybe the postgame interviews? Why not buy the CBC postgame? Are there people awake at 11:30 at night demanding fishing shows?

Still, the NBC broadcasts have been great, and having Pierre Maguire on the benches is a stroke of brilliance. For my money, he's the best analyst in the game, or at least on American TV; I didn't get the package this year, so I haven't seen the CBC stuff.

I've been watching a little bit of the World Cup over the weekend. I've been doing my best to appreciate soccer, mainly because the haters seem to drag out many of the same criticisms that are leveled at hockey (low scoring, not enough "name" stars, etc), and I don't want to simply shrug off something that so much of the world loves, simply because I haven't given it a shot, which is what I perceive has happened to hockey. So I've made an effort, and yeah- you know, it's all right. I'll definitely tune in for the final.

That said, would it kill them to put in a fucking blue line?

Seriously, I'm not really loving this "Anything that seems exciting is offside" rule.

Watching soccer is like rooting for a wave to wash over a sand castle as the tide comes in. It's like "here it comes, will it happen? ...nope it's going out again. OK here it comes, will it happen this time? ...nope, there it goes. Wait, look! Here it comes, will it happen? Oh for God's sake."

Oh, and in a closing note, I've been poking around Youtube for hockey clips, as I'm wont to do, and I came across the clip of the infamous Clint Malarchuk accident, where the Buffalo goaltender had his jugular vein cut after taking a skate in the throat during a collision in the crease. Anyway, I'd seen print photos of the incident, but had never actually SEEN it until now, and it's pretty grisly, awful stuff. I thought about posting a link, but I'm not really comfortable with it- this blog is for entertainment, and that clip is not entertaining. If you want to see it, go to Youtube and enter "Malarchuk" and "hockey" and it will come up. But be warned, you are seeing a man with his throat cut, and blood literally pouring out onto the ice. It's chilling, it's a miracle he survived, and it kind of upsets me to even think about it.

But you know, that's what the internet is for right?

You gotta make your own choices.

Enjoy game seven.